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Why is Dragon Quest not popular is the west?


IceBrand
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Dragon Ball is one of the most popular anime and most well known in the west. Considering that the creator of DB( Akira Toriyama) does the art work for DQ, you think people might have glanced at it and and gave it a shot. Are RPGs really that niche?

Edited by Noble Rapier
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I think it has to do with the story and characterization not being as strong in Dragon Quest as it is in Final Fantasy and other RPGs. The menu layouts are also a bit too non-user friendly compared to other RPGs. Finding out the the next area to go to or the next mission to do is also harder than most games, and unlike other RPGs that made missions more linear/clear in later sequels, missions in the later Dragon Quest games are still hard to figure out. The two latter factors combined make it one of the more less accessible RPG series.

Keep in mind, I'm a big Dragon Quest fan and have played all the Dragon Quest games I could personally get my hands on (Dragon Quests I-VI and IX), so I'm not talking down on it as a hater. For me, the series was an acquired taste it took a while to like due to the above flaws/differences compared to most RPGs.

Edited by Randoman
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I think as a whole the entire Dragon Quest series is pretty solid, but it never had that "Breakthrough" game in the west, like Final Fantasy VI/VII, and as kingddd mentioned, it really doesn't get advertized over here.

I think now though, as the FF series is getting pretty stale people are looking into some of the other JRPG series. I know I personally only started really diving into them the last couple years or so. (I personally like DQV the best.)

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People just gripped onto the other more famous rpgs then didn't care much about the dragon quest ones,like, people just saw it as ''another rpg game'' , that's probably why it don't get much atention

There's also the fact the 1st person battle style is not much charming at first glance, that's how it was with me through alot of time and never played it because of that, now that i did i like DQ V and IX(which is very cooler) alot.

Edited by Icarusu
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I have never played one and I guess the main reason is because I don't hear much about the games. I only actually started seeing the games for sale the past couple of years where I live, either the stores where I live only get a couple of games in at a time or they don't sell enough to make ordering more worth it, because there is only ever 1 or 2 copies and the used ones are rather high side. I like the sounds of the games and if I find a used copy for a good price I might try the series out, but it is not a series I would be willing to buy new just to try it because my budget for games is rather small.

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There are quite a few reasons for that:

The primary one being advertising. Seriously, I had no idea that there was even a Dragon Quest X being made, and even worse than that, I had no idea that there was apparently a mobile version of VIII. That's pretty lousy.

Timing: the first 2 Dragon Quest games are admittedly very, VERY flawed games, when the games finally started to hit their stride, III, the NES was gearing towards its final years. III not so much, but IV definitely.

Spare Releases: The series just disappeared for the entire SNES generation. That killed any momentum it ever could have had. Combine that with the lack of advertising, and it was a lost cause for it to become popular when the PSX game was released. Sure, the game boy ones were still around, but it was the GAME BOY-- outside of Pokemon, there really weren't many popular titles for the handheld. Even if it was, it's up against Pokemon, another RPG which completely eclipsed and dwarfed any real chance it had to blossom.

Edited by Augestein
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I'm the kind of guy that enjoys rooting for the more obscure series, and DQ is one of them. I have I, III, IV, XI, and Fortune Street if that counts.

Like mentioned above, it hasn't had a big breakthrough. X wasn't localized (and I doubt it will be) and that could've been a mistake. VII and VIII was made for the 3DS, but so far, nothing for the West.

So it's mainly keeping it's roots in Japan. What Final Fantasy is here, Dragon Quest is to Japan. I'm sure once they get a real good idea going, it'll pay off akin to FE:Awakening.

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Because people don't know what a good series is.

Though, yeah, I agree with you Augestein, the advertising must be for something.

Doesn't make me any less bitter about it though. :p

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It didn't help the Final Fantasy was released in the US only a few months after Dragon Warrior. The original Final Fantasy is definitely a superior product (mostly because it was made to top DQ2) to the original Dragon Quest, so in the NA market it was the one that people remembered.

Everything after that was Enix deciding not to throw good money after bad.

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Personally I think the biggest reason is marketing. I love Dragon Quest and shamelessly advertise it a lot, and I did successfully get Sophie to play it.

Anyway, the marketing for DQ is... it needs work. I've beaten V-IX and played some of I, III, and IV, and I can say that SE really needs to push it more here.

DQVII is one of the best games I've played despite its flaws. The Japan sales really show this, not only is the PSX version the #1 best selling DQ there, it's the #1 bestselling PSX game. In the US, not so much, the game got realeased late in the PSX's life and wasn't pushed, giving it meager sales.

So yeah.

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